Palladium

INOVASI 3 - Strategic Communications Manager

Background

Indonesia’s Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia’s human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia’s 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values.

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.

This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program’s approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia’s development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels, and use the well attested-success of INOVASI’s local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

INOVASI Phase 3 is implemented in 25 districts and cities across Indonesia, in the provinces of West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, North Kalimantan, East Java, West Java, and Maluku. The program also works in Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN).

The Program is managed by Palladium on behalf of the Government of Australia through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Purpose of the Position:

The Strategic Communications Manager will lead INOVASI’s communications portfolio. The Strategic Communications Manager will lead the communications team to communicate results, advance advocacy goals, and generate visibility. Communications activities will spotlight the work of education actors who are strengthening the education ecosystem and underscore the importance of DFAT’s public diplomacy commitments to support implementation of inclusive primary education policies and practices for foundational skills nationwide.

He or she will oversee implementation of the communications and public diplomacy strategy that outlines the program’s communications goals, updated messaging framework, audience targeting, and communications products and platforms for Phase III.

The Strategic Communications Manager will demonstrate strong leadership skills, and effectively lead the communications team by building understanding of INOVASI’s communication goals, conveying priorities, setting deliverables, and providing strong project management and coordination skills. The Strategic Communications Manager will be responsible for ensuring transparent management of budget and resources and will motivate and support the team to drive and deliver communication initiatives. He or she will regularly report on communication activities ensuring INOVASI staff and stakeholders are well-informed.

The Strategic Communications Manager will also provide strategic and technical leadership for achievement of communications goals in partner provinces. This will be done through a ‘matrix’ management structure and system whereby implementation of activities at the subnational level will be the responsibility and accountability of the Provincial Managers, while the Strategic Communications Manager will be responsible and accountable for the provision of relevant technical expertise to help conceptualise, design and quality assure the implementation of communications activities at the sub-national level.

Duties: Under the direction of Deputy Director, Development Priorities and Communications, the Strategic Communications Manager will be responsible for:

1. Leading, motivating and inspiring the communications team through effective leadership and management of the communications unit; ensuring project management coherence, conveying strategic priorities, and setting clear deliverables to deliver communication initiatives.
2. Leading the communications team to communicate the purpose of INOVASI, the results and outcomes of INOVASI activities and deliver high quality communications products that decision makers can utilise to improve education policies, systems, and practices.
3. Lead the development and implementation of a communications and public diplomacy strategy , including digital engagement, which builds on the strong communication foundation that INOVASI established in Phase II.
4. Develop and manage the implementation of annual Communications Work Plans, including Communications Program Activity Concepts– which detail the requirements and assignment of personnel, time schedules, materials and funds to perform the requisite Communications functions;
5. Ensuring INOVASI’s communications strategy and products are aligned with DFAT’s and Government of Indonesia partners’ communication needs through interaction and coordination with counterparts and regular exchange of information and updates on progress, and that the program’s five IOs and the themes of localisation, Indonesian-led stories and partnership are highlighted in communications messaging and products.
6. Ensure adherence to socio-political context, DFAT and Government of Indonesia priorities and compliance with DFAT and INOVASI branding protocols including child protection policy requirements.
7. Designing effective communication plans that will deliver the aims of the communications strategy and supervise the implementation of these plans.
8. Developing and ensuring maintenance of a communications event calendar and ensuring timely exchange of information.
9. Ensuring transparent and effective and management of budget and resources.
10. Develop and routinely update Communications unit budget forecasts in close collaboration with the Operations team, and ensure Communications team spending tracks well with approved budget allocations.
11. Coordinate if needed and support finalization of English language materials, including INOVASI annual reports and plans, for DFAT audiences;
12. Supporting INOVASI policy engagement and advocacy activities through the development of a wide range of bespoke products and presentations, messaging, and collaterals including English language materials for DFAT audiences.
13. Managing INOVASI’s digital platforms, producing engaging content which supports INOVASI’s mandate. Liaise with DFAT communications teams to support public diplomacy through social media channels and collaborate with other donor-funded education programs to broaden reach.
14. Ensuring the establishment and maintenance of a pool of graphic designers, translators, and copy editors.
15. Providing technical leadership for communications personnel and activities implemented in the provinces and lead regular meetings to ensure streamlined communications and opportunities are maximised.
16. Collaborating with the MERL team to design and support implementation of MEL for program communication activities, ensuring learnings inform future strategy revision(s) and improvement of comms products, messaging, and approaches.
17. Collaborate with specialists in climate change. Gender and inclusion specialists to support communications strategy and implementation of climate change, gender and inclusion initiatives.
18. Preparing and submitting monthly updates and progress/status reports.
19. Overseeing the execution of INOVASI’s national and provincial high-level events.
20. Identifying and supporting opportunities to harness the district communication ecosystem strategies to support scale out.
21. Contribute to strengthening internal communication capacities through leadership, coaching, training and sharing of expertise.
22. Other duties as may reasonably be required by the INOVASI Program Director or Deputy Director, Development Priorities and Communications and consistent with the incumbent’s qualifications and experience.

Qualifications and Experience

The Strategic Communications Manager will possess the following qualifications and experience:

1. A Bachelor degree in the fields of Social Science, Development Studies, Communication and Media, Public Relations or related subjects (a Master’s degree would be an advantage);
2. 5-10 years of relevant work experience in the communications and media and /or education advocacy and promotions;
3. Track record of working on or with development programs (preferably donor funded) and understanding of donors’ communications priorities (preferably DFAT);
4. Strong leadership skills and experience of managing teams to deliver results.
5. Strong interpersonal skills and proven record of strong stakeholder relations, with ability to work in sensitive situations and challenging policy environments;
6. Excellent presentational and writing skills including use of digital technologies, social media tools and multi—media technologies;
7. Demonstrated project planning and organizational skills, ability to work to tight deadlines and handle multiple concurrent activities;
8. Knowledge of the Indonesian government and its development priorities is preferred;
9. Excellent written and verbal communication, liaison and interpersonal skills;
10. Fluency in written and spoken English is required, fluency in Bahasa Indonesia is preferred.

INOVASI encourages applications from individuals of all backgrounds, including persons with disabilities, and others from underrepresented groups.

Application closes 2 December 2025 at 23:59, Jakarta Time.

INOVASI has zero tolerance for child abuse and exploitation. All successful candidates will be required to adhere to our Child Protection Policy and will be subject to background checks as a condition of employment.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status. Women are encouraged to apply